Mehmed Kâmil Pasha (; , "Mehmed Kâmil Pasha the Cypriot"), also spelled as Kâmil Pasha (1833 – 14 November 1913), was an Ottoman

Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. In some cases, Anglophilia refers to an individual's appreciation of English history and traditional English cultural ico ...

statesman and liberal politician of

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( or ; ) are so called ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land onc ...

origin in the late-19th-century and early-20th-century. He was the

Grand Vizier Grand vizier (; ; ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Soko ...

of the Empire during four different periods.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971 (Turkish)

Early life

Mehmed Kâmil Pasha was born in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Ottoman Cyprus The Eyalet of Cyprus (, ''Eyālet-i Ḳıbrıṣ'') was an eyalet/province of the Ottoman Empire made up of the island of Cyprus, which was annexed into the Empire in 1571. The Ottomans changed the way they administered Cyprus multiple times. It ...

in 1833. He was the son of an artillery captain, Salih Agha, from the village of

Pyrogi Pyrogi (; ) is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located south of Tymbou. It is under de facto control of Northern Cyprus. Today it is largely uninhabited, as the village lies within military area and can only be visited with permissi ...

. His paternal grandfather is from Karakese village of

Anamur Anamur is a municipality and district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,430 km2, and its population is 66,846 (2022). It is the westernmost district of that province, bordering on Antalya Province. Anamur contains Anatolia's southernm ...

. Kâmil's mother is Pembe Hanım, who also hailed from Cyprus. He was educated in on the island until the age of thirteen; He learned Arabic, Persian, French and Greek. In 1845, he was taken to Egypt with his younger brother and studied at Elsine

Madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

. Shortly after, when the madrasah was converted into a military academy, he took courses on military sciences. He graduated as a cavalry lieutenant. His first post was in the household of the

Khedive Khedive ( ; ; ) was an honorific title of Classical Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the Khedive of Egypt, viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Khedive" ''Encyclopaedi ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Abbas I, at that time was only nominally dependent to the central Ottoman power in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. In the course of this appointment he visited

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

for the

Great Exhibition of 1851 Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

in charge of one of the Khedive's sons. Kâmil's sojourn in London left in him a lifelong admiration for

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and during his career within the Ottoman state, he was always known to be an

. Having full command of English, thenceforth to the close of his career he zealously sought a close friendship between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire.

High politics in the Ottoman Empire

After remaining in Egypt for ten years, Mehmed Kâmil exchanged the service of Abbas I for that of the Ottoman Government as of 1860 and for the ensuing nineteen years – that is to say until he first entered the Cabinet – he filled very numerous administrative appointments in every part of the Empire. He governed, or helped to govern

vilayets A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

such as Eastern Rumelia, Hercegovina,

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

, and his native

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Kâmil Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier from 25 September 1885 to 4 September 1891, under

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

's reign. During this time he developed a rivalry with

Mehmed Said Pasha Mehmed Said Pasha (‎; 1838–1914), also known as Küçük Said Pasha (; "Said Pasha the Younger") or Şapur Çelebi or in his youth as Mabeyn Başkâtibi Said Bey, was an Ottoman Turkish monarchist, senator, statesman and editor of the ...

. His second premiership came about during the height of the Armenian Crisis during the

Hamidian massacres The Hamidian massacres also called the Armenian massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1890s. Estimated casualties ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, Akçam, Taner (2006) '' A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide a ...

. On 2 October 1895 he was appointed Grand Vizier in a tense atmosphere. As a neo- Tanzimatist, Kâmil Pasha petitioned the sultan to put responsible governance back in the hands of the

Sublime Porte The Sublime Porte, also known as the Ottoman Porte or High Porte ( or ''Babıali''; ), was a synecdoche or metaphor used to refer collectively to the central government of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. It is particularly referred to the buildi ...

. He received support from the Great Powers and Young Turk media. Several CUP organs supported Kâmil Pasha in his showdown with the Sultan, but by 7 November, Kâmil Pasha was out of high office, his "coup" ending in ''status quo''. For the next decade, he was exiled as governor of

Aydın Aydın ( ''EYE-din''; ; formerly named ''Güzelhisar; Greek: Τράλλεις)'' is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River (ancient ...

. When Said Pasha resigned from office soon after the

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908; ) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Revolutionaries belonging to the Internal Committee of Union and Progress, an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II ...

, Abdul Hamid II and the CUP compromised with Kâmil Pasha to run the government. Kâmil soon had an antagonistic relationship with the committee, and associated himself with Prince Sabahaddin's Liberty Party. His premiership lasted just over five months, before the CUP censured him with a vote of no confidence, and replaced him with someone more pliant to the committee's wishes. For three years he stayed out of politics. In 1911 he contracted pneumonia and went to Egypt for a change of atmosphere. There he met with King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

of England and the queen, who were on a trip to India, for lunch on the ship. This incident caused him to be heavily criticized in the pro-CUP press. After a while he returned to Istanbul. After the shuttering of parliament in summer 1912 by the Savior Officers, he became head of the

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

in Muhtar Pasha's Great Cabinet. With his resignation Kâmil returned to the premiership leading a government initially friendly to Freedom and Accord. He was appointed Grand Vizier for his friendly relations with the British (he was often known as ''İngiliz Kâmil'', or "English Kâmil", for his Anglophilia), in the hopes that he would be able to get favorable terms for the end of the ongoing, disastrous

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

(since the victorious Bulgaria's foreign interests were represented by the British). In January 1913, Kâmil's government decided to accept severe peace conditions including massive territorial losses. The CUP used this pretext for their

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

on 23 January 1913. That day, Enver Bey, one of the CUP's military leaders, burst with some of his associates into the Sublime Porte while the cabinet was in session. By most accounts, one of Enver's officers, Yakup Cemil, shot the Minister of War Nazım Pasha and the group pressed Kâmil Pasha to resign immediately at gunpoint. Kâmil was put under house arrest and surveillance. The ex-Grand Vizier (who probably was in danger of life) was invited by his British friend Lord Kitchener to stay with him in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. After three months in Egypt, Mehmed Kâmil Pasha decided to wait for favourable turn of events in his native Cyprus, now under British occupation. Five weeks after his return to Cyprus, the assassination of his successor to the premiership, Mahmut Şevket Pasha, occurred in June 1913, by a relative of Nazım Pasha to avenge his death. The CUP regime reacted with persecution of well-known opposition politicians.

Djemal Pasha Ahmed Djemal (; ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha or Cemâl Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As an officer of the II Corps, he was ...

, then the CUP prefect of the capital Constantinople, indicated to Kâmil's family that they had to leave

Ottoman Turkey The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Euro ...

or he too would be arrested. His family joined his exile in

. On 14 November 1913, while full of plans for revisiting England in 1914, Kâmil Pasha suddenly died of syncope and was buried in the court of the Arab Ahmet Mosque.

Family

Kâmil married Layika (Bayur) and had several children. His grandson is Hikmet Bayur and his grand nephew is film maker

Zeki Alasya Zeki Alasya (18 April 1943 – 8 May 2015) was a Turkish actor and film director. Alasya was of Turkish Cypriot descent and was related to Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha. Filmleri 1957 Bir Avuç Toprak 1958 Iftira 1959 Gurbet 1960 Tas Beb ...

. His son-in-law is general Naci Eldeniz. Tekin Arıburun, president of the Turkish Senate from 1970–1977, is his grandson-in-law.

Legacy

Sir Ronald Storrs, British Governor of Cyprus from 1926 to 1932, erected a memorial to be raised over Kâmil Pasha's grave. He also composed the English inscription, carved on the headstone below a Turkish one. It runs as follows: ''His Highness Kiamil Pasha''
''Son of Captain Salih Agha of Pyroi''
''Born in

in 1833''
''Treasury Clerk''
''Commissioner of

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

''
''Director of Evqaf''
''Four times Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire''
''A Great Turk and''
''A Great Man.''

Sources

Cyprus by Sir Harry Luke for a short biography of Kamil Pasha and a moving account of his funeral

External links